What you said about social media age restrictions in Australia

Australia’s push to implement social media age restrictions has sparked furious debate, with a lot of readers fully in support of it, but many questioning how it can be policed. HAVE YOUR SAY

• Moments that ignited social war

Australia’s push to implement social media age restrictions has sparked furious debate.

The renewed push comes after News Corp’s Let Them Be Kids campaign, which highlighted the growing concerns, led to Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s pledge.

Readers, though, aren’t entirely convinced, with some suggesting there are more radical ideas worth looking at.

Others claimed that the issue remains parents and how they look after their children.

However some called for even wider bans.

Here is everything you need to know about the age restrictions – see below what you said >>>

WHAT YOU SAID

They should go even harder

Col

Why not just go the whole gamut and make it illegal for anyone under 16 to possess a smart phone … just like a driver’s licence, same principle.

Lorenzo

Regardless the age, anyone using social media needs to provide real identification so trolling, bullying, etc can be traced back to a real person, whether it be an adult for young children. The keyboard should not hide the true identity of a person.

Snake

The should just ban Tik Tok, Facebook, Snapchat etc. They don’t pay taxes and do way more harm than good.

Wake Up Australia

Why not 18 and line it up with drinking and voting?

How can they make it work?

Diana

Great in theory but very difficult to implement. Almost 10 years ago I was teaching a grade 5 class (10 year olds) and asked if any of them had a Facebook account. More than half admitted to having one. I pointed out that they were not allowed an account until they were at least 13. In every case the parents were complicit in the setting up of the account.

Rob

As someone who works in education, there is a lot wrong with this plan. However, it’s an excellent start. Yes, it will be almost impossible to police, but it gives parents an excuse to not allow their children on there. It will also allow teachers to say to parents, that their child is effectively breaking the law by using social media.

Rusty

Interesting to see how this will work with so many disengaged parents and who easily give in to their teens’ whims and demands

Karen French

And how are they going to police each and every child in every home in their rooms at night?

Sam Costa

This is a parenting issue not a government issue

Maurice Caruana

We have to make social media warriors not ban social media

All for it

Karina Jensen

About time parents taught their children to stand up for others too and not be bystanders no doubt a lot of people knew what was going on …

Jen Fitch

Just ban it for everyone so the kids have a parent to talk to instead of reaching out to strangers for help plus adults are just as bad attack each other on social media so it should get the flick

Shirley

This will make it easier for decent parents to keep their decent kids away from this scourge.

Originally published as What you said about social media age restrictions in Australia